Building an underwater city for Disney

Mignola's stark style fills the bill for `Atlantis'

Comic book creator Mike Mignola's first foray into film may not have been glamorous, but it was memorable.

In 1992, Mignola worked as a storyboard artist and illustrator on Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula," designing part of a castle that "shows up in one millisecond of flashback."

Mignola did, however, get to have dinner and sit through a private screening of the film with Coppola and George Lucas. Halfway through the film, he was faced with the age-old question: "Do I ask the guy who made `The Godfather' or the guy who made `Star Wars' where the bathroom is?"

He went with the host, Coppola. The Bay Area native describes his time working with Coppola as "such an out-of-body experience, it didn't occur to me to [work in film] again."

But when Disney called four years ago, and offered him the chance to design an entire underwater city for "Atlantis: The Lost Empire," it was an offer he couldn't refuse. Not only were directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise fans of his dark, geometric style, but they also wanted to adapt it to the screen.

Mignola, 40, started inking stories for Marvel Comics when he was 22 years old. During the '80s and early '90s, he drew runs of "The Incredible Hulk," "Superman" and "Batman" before striking gold with "Hellboy" in 1994, his popular occult detective series, which he currently writes and illustrates for Dark Horse Comics.

Both fans of "Hellboy" (Trousdale jokes that he has to call it "Heckboy" at Disney), the directors invited the artist to Disney's animation studio in California. When Mignola arrived at Disney a short time later, 300 people were being taught how to draw like him.

"When I got to Disney, I found the most freakish thing of all -- enlargements of various comic book pages I had done, with diagrams drawn over the top of them," Mignola remembers. "It was very, very bizarre."

While Disney didn't bring Mignola's high contrast, angular style whole to the screen, his influence is still palpable.

"The first time I saw finished animation, what struck me was the hands. I didn't realize I had this distinct way of doing hands," Mignola says. "I said, `What the hell's wrong with everyone's hands? They got these flat, square hands with these weird little fingernails' . . . until somebody pointed out: that's them doing me."

"He does comics. A lot of people write those off, but they are a big currency -- a big visual medium," says "Atlantis" producer Don Hahn. "I think it's great to finally give Mike his due, because he's a great designer. He really kicked our butt to do something different."

Director Trousdale adds: "People always ask me, `How do I become an animator?' I always say read more comics and watch more cartoons -- things moms don't want to hear."

As part of the creative team, Mignola also was able to suggest plot points, integrating story ideas into the look of the city. Although Mignola stresses his contributions were collaborative, he can see his work most pronounced in the hybrid Indian/pyramid architecture of Atlantis. He created the Atlantean's homes, as well as the crystal circuitry designs -- which Trousdale describes as "somewhere between crop circles and a circuit board" -- laid into the city and the Leviathan monster. Mignola also saw Atlantis as an "iceberg" city, almost completely submerged.

"I like getting paid to talk. I'm used to talking, but I'm not used to anyone listening," says Mignola, laughing. "It was so much fun because it was that early, wonderful pre-production period where anything was possible. You just throw some ideas around and see what sticks."

"What I loved about Mike was his story sense," Hahn says. "His drawings are cool to look at but his ideas are great. `What if we had flying stone fish . . .,' he'd say. They were such oddball ideas, but somehow we were able to put those in the movie and make them part of the movie. That was as much his contribution to the movie as his drawing style."

Staying with comics

Although Mignola recently completed visual consulting work on Guillermo Del Toro's "Blade 2: Bloodlust" and "Hellboy" is in development at Universal Pictures, Mignola says he's not giving up comics for work in film.

"My situation is so freakish. Most the people I meet in the movie business are working their way up, usually from somewhere around the bottom," Mignola says. "I've fallen backwards into the top end. When I worked on `Dracula,' I only worked with Francis [Ford Coppola]. When I worked on `Atlantis,' I only worked with the directors and producer."

Currently working on another "Hellboy" series and several "top secret" projects, Mignola's love remains comics. Film he enjoys for its collective creative energy, but he also likes the control he has with pen and ink.

"Most job offers can't compare to `Hellboy,' because I have complete creative freedom to do whatever I want," he says. "I sit down, it's exactly what I want it to be, and there's no outside interference."